Research Shows Female Social Media Influencers In The UK Are Out-Earning Men

And we have the power of social media to thank.

May 05, 2017 4:15am

By Dusty Baxter-Wright

The bad news: the gender pay gap isn't calculated to close fully in the UK until 2041, and in Australia the pay gap is around 17% as of 2015.

The good news: girl bosses in social media are already out-performing men's earnings by 35 per cent, and aren't showing any signs of stopping.

In a study conducted by marketing agency Influencer, research shows female influencers in the UK are out-earning men with sponsored content and collaborations with brands by over a third.

Their findings outlined how a female influencer with 100,000 followers can earn up to £41,600 from two sponsored posts a week (side note: WTF), whereas a male influencer would earn more like £31,200 for the same efforts.

For women, this is 51 per cent more a week than the average salary of £27,500 that full time employees take home yearly.

It's no surprise that influential individuals on social media are monetising their social feeds - they have been doing so for some years now - but it is a surprise to see that female influencers are commanding higher fees than their male counterparts, flipping the traditional pay gap on its head.

Unsurprisingly, it's the likes of Zoella and Tanya Burr that the study cites as the biggest female social influencers, who have previously been paid to create content across YouTube, Instagram and Twitter.

Though, before we all go ahead and start a quest to be insta-famous, it may be worth thinking about the commodification of women in these careers.

Often the line between product and female ideal are more than a little blurred, equating the female body as object and lifestyles that can be bought and sold, more so than our male counterparts.

However, we are glad to see the tides are changing when it comes to closing the gender pay gap.